It's Autum again!
In the September article we touched on communicating with God, OUR Heavenly Father . We spoke about hard things and times in our life and about being trained or disciplined, not punished by our Dad because we are his kids and He loves us.
I reminded you of I Thessalonians 5:17, where it speaks of praying without ceasing and we said that: "The scripture...."Pray without ceasing" isn't a suggestion, it's a command. There's good reason our Lord made it a command-prayer isn't and inborn reaction to anything! It's something we must discipline ourselves to do."
We talked of the necessity of having that muscle in good condition to ensure that the line of communication is open. To be certain there will be no hesitation when we need to be in communication with Papa our God when we are in need.
Such little things can knock us off of our feet and cause us to react wrongly if we aren't prepared. Take yesterday for instance. I got up early in the morning to go to a medical appointment. My van is 10 years old and has over 160,000 miles on it but it works just fine. I got to the appointment in plenty of time but soon learned that I had to reschedule because this appointment was two weeks before it would be a year since my last appointment and the medical insurance wouldn't cover it. So I rescheduled. Went out to my trusty van and guess what---you guessed it--it wouldn't run. With all of the traveling I had just done I was certain it was out of gas but the gauge read that I still had 1/4 of a tank.
I had to call for a tow truck and be towed to a garage.
But, while I was sitting in my very quiet van waiting the tow truck Papa whispered a verse me. Now, to know me is to understand that I know pretty much of the scriptures but I can't tell you where you'll find what verse. I have to search and look it up. Sooo, I looked up the verse (Heb.13: 21) and it said,
"equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."
Now the verse before that says: "May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep,"
Was I prepared for the other things coming my way yesterday? No I wasn't, but I did know that God was in charge and he had prepared me to deal with what ever was to come my way. Somehow he was going to work in me what was pleasing to him.
The van and I finally got to the garage and the guys there felt it needed a new fuel pump and wouldn't even consider that it may be out of gas. I had to call a friend to come get me and then I had to rent a car. Well, my financial budget wasn't prepared for a car rental nor a fuel pump.
I don't even remember calling on God while I was beginning to work through that situation. But, he called on me. Our lines of communication are never closed so they didn't have to be opened. Had I spent an hour with him in a quiet place before I left that morning? No, although it would have been a good idea. I awoke when the alarm went off, got cleaned up, dressed, left the dog out and ran out the door. Not even time for coffee or breakfast.
What do you consider prayer to be? There are many different opinions on this subject, and good theory to back them up. Please for a moment, remember what communication is. The Thesaurus on the program I'm using explains these two words, Communication and Prayer as follows:
Communication = interaction, interplay, conversation, discussion
Prayer = entreaty, invocation, request, plea, adjuration, supplication, appeal, petition, imploration
When I searched the word prayer used in the Bible there were 379 matches in the old and new testaments. Some of them are prayers offered by people, some are teaching us physical and spiritual posture and attitudes. Jesus even gave an example of prayer, Matthew 6:9.
When I read this I see communication. So may of the words that the Thesaurus related to prayer (to my thinking) hinted at begging, hands wringing. Jesus was talking to someone that he KNEW. To him God wasn't someone in a far away place unseen and untouched. God was his dad and he knew that his dad loved him. Elsewhere he also said that if our earthly fathers could give good gifts to their children how much better could our Heavenly Father.
Jesus started out by saying, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,"
…In other words - holy, blessed, honored, revered and sacred is your name Father, Our Father. Not just someone else's Father but mine too. Jesus said so. Yet God is even more than that. Jesus starts us out by reminding us whom we're talking to: The Holy God, The Sacred Father, The Revered Heavenly Father, and OUR DAD.
Once in a time of prayer I came running into God's presence as a little child does into daddy's presence and jumped up into his arms. I was perched in the crook of his one arm and we were snuggling on each other and just loving each other and he said to me, "and with the other arm I guide the universe".
Do you KNOW Him? Do you KNOW that God is YOUR Heavenly Father? Do you KNOW that God loves Y O U ?
Are you aware that God says you are his child? Do you KNOW Him in such a way that you can talk to him with out feeling that you need to beg?
Have you found him as Elijah did in I Kings 19:11-13. He found God in a gentle whisper. Have you heard his gentle whisper, his still small voice?
I have a friend that put it this way: I knew, but then finally I had it in my knower.
That's when you know - that you know - that you KNOW!
Then in this example of prayer, Jesus guides us to surrender our selfish, self-centered human will to God's all knowing and all perfect loving will.
He has us keep a short account of the things we have said or done to offend OUR Heavenly Father and reminds us that we've no right to hold anything against another.
Also, reminds us that the measure of forgiveness that we give out will be the measure that we will receive.
He teaches us to ask for our needs for today to be met and to ask him to guide us, our thoughts and our ways that we won't fall into temptation but be delivered from it.
Prayer isn't pleading you case before the highest court. It is - talking to your Heavenly Dad.
When you talk to someone, communicate with someone, is it a monologue? Do you allow the other person to put a word in here or there, do you patiently allow them time to consider what you've said and respond?
Do you give God that chance to respond or do you disconnect the line of communication and run off? Perhaps afraid that you won't like his response?
I've heard that there are 3 answers to prayer: Yes, No and Not Yet.
Incidentally, I just received a phone call from the mechanic. The van is running just fine and they can't find a thing wrong with it. They put gas in it and ran it all over and it's working just fine. They're going to go ahead and inspect it while they have it.
While God does hear my requests, my concerns my hearts desires, he also is willing to put up with my babbling. I chatter away to him about simply everything, and he doesn't seem to mind…
I hope you've been given something to think about, perhaps even stretch you a bit. Search out the scriptures yourself. I'd be glad to hear what you find. There's so much more for us to learn about prayer, communicating with our Father. We'll take another look at this topic again soon.